They are eating their eggs

CatCohen

Chirping
May 5, 2015
48
11
67
My chickens just started laying about a month ago. First one, then the next for a few weeks. Last week I found an empty, eaten egg on the ground. Yesterday (so about 5 days after the first incident) an egg was in the garden, eaten. As we did some gardening, I saw near one of our trees the tiniest egg ever. After posting a picture I was assured it was a chicken egg and not a quail egg (we have a ton of quail)

Went onto another message board and someone suggested putting out eggs with mustard in them to train them to dislike the taste of eggs. Sure as heck I observed one chick (she seems to have become the alpha) eating the shell and while not liking the mustard, not hating it either. So I took those out.

This morning I went out to find 2 eggs (first time ever.) One was in the box all nice and warm. The other, bigger egg (possibly from my one sweet and now egg eating alpha RIR) on the floor eaten.

So I tried the mustard route. Nope. We researched and it was suggested we add oysters shells to their diet. Just put out the shells, they will eat them (they do) and they will have eggs with super hard shells.

Well the people who built our coop and another friend who raises chickens said never feed them shells. Mindy (coop lady) went on to say she never gives her chickens oyster shells either and they never ate their eggs.

Since we put them outside we have saved egg shells (store bought but still organic) ground them to fine powder and added it to their meal for the calcium. Oyster shells are a recent addition. Today we are going to buy hard wooden eggs so they can't get into them and hopefully get frustrated. Any other thoughts?

They get layer feed, also organic or non-gmo. We actually switched to non-gmo a while ago because the organic had soy protein. I cannot have non-fermented soy in my diet. (Breast cancer survivor for everyone's info. Ladies, be careful about your soy)

Today we are getting a new organic feed that has no soy protein.

Help!!!!!
 
My chickens lay eggs and only eat the ones that are cracked. We have about 46 hens lol
I feed mine oyster shells, and they never eat them.
What I feed my chickens is cracked corn(But not much since it isn't winter) black oil sunflower seeds(At Walmart in a 40 pound bag for $18) Then some bird seed(Because they love it) and non GMO layer pellets( From Tucker Milling) And my chickens are healthy and lay tons of eggs(42 a day)
The trick to making chickens lay eggs, is to make them HAPPY. Like feeding them compost(which any chicken loves) and bread(Sometimes)
Chickens LOVE grapes too.
And give them lots of love.

Hope this helps

BCP
 
I find most egg eating is from three things. Not enough protein, not enough calcium or boredom. Since they only started laying I don't think it's calcium, that usually happens later in the laying season. I would still provide oyster shells free choice.

You said your birds free range so boredom can probably be rules out. That leaves a protein deficiency. Layer only have 16%, which can be fine in adult layers receiving nothing else to eat, any free ranging or extra stuff like scratch or scraps can lower the overall protein they consume in a day. Eggs are pretty much all protein, so higher production hens will often developed a deficiency on layer, especially if they are younger and still growing as well. I prefer a ration of 18-20%, either a non medicated grower or an all flock, and then my extra calcium needs are addressed with the oyster shells, and some ground up egg shells.

I would definitely add fake eggs to deter successful egg breaking and collect eggs often. Any broken eggs or those laid on the ground are often eaten and is considered normal.
 
My chickens just started laying about a month ago. First one, then the next for a few weeks. Last week I found an empty, eaten egg on the ground. Yesterday (so about 5 days after the first incident) an egg was in the garden, eaten. As we did some gardening, I saw near one of our trees the tiniest egg ever. After posting a picture I was assured it was a chicken egg and not a quail egg (we have a ton of quail)

Went onto another message board and someone suggested putting out eggs with mustard in them to train them to dislike the taste of eggs. Sure as heck I observed one chick (she seems to have become the alpha) eating the shell and while not liking the mustard, not hating it either. So I took those out.

This morning I went out to find 2 eggs (first time ever.) One was in the box all nice and warm. The other, bigger egg (possibly from my one sweet and now egg eating alpha RIR) on the floor eaten.

So I tried the mustard route. Nope. We researched and it was suggested we add oysters shells to their diet. Just put out the shells, they will eat them (they do) and they will have eggs with super hard shells.

Well the people who built our coop and another friend who raises chickens said never feed them shells. Mindy (coop lady) went on to say she never gives her chickens oyster shells either and they never ate their eggs.

Since we put them outside we have saved egg shells (store bought but still organic) ground them to fine powder and added it to their meal for the calcium. Oyster shells are a recent addition. Today we are going to buy hard wooden eggs so they can't get into them and hopefully get frustrated. Any other thoughts?

They get layer feed, also organic or non-gmo. We actually switched to non-gmo a while ago because the organic had soy protein. I cannot have non-fermented soy in my diet. (Breast cancer survivor for everyone's info. Ladies, be careful about your soy)

Today we are getting a new organic feed that has no soy protein. 

Help!!!!!
I forgot to ask about your no soy, I had ovarian cancer and I eat soy. From what I was told and have read, soy is fine as it doesn't have estrogen in it, it shares similar compounds, but doesn't affect estrogen fed cancers. I have read lots of studies that show no link between the two and actually have shown it can help prevent it from reoccurring.

I'm very happy to hear you are a survivor, and that I know the kinds of things you must of went through. I am was wondering where you got that information? I'm very interested in reading everything about it as I can because I certainly never want it to come back. So please share, thanks.
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My cancer was 95% estrogen positive. So I definitely affect estrogen. I've spoken to numerous natural paths and took a naturopathic approach to my healing after the surgery. I would rather avoid soy than go through that whole thing again. Fermented soy is actually fine. Tofu and soy beans are not fermented.I will be 10 years cancer-free in August and I intend to keep it that way.
 

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